render-claude-context

Tired of maintaining several sets of context and rules for Claude Code, opencode, and Gemini CLI?

This node.js CLI tool processes CLAUDE.md files with hierarchical collection and recursive @-import resolution. Walks directory tree from current to ~/.claude/, collecting all CLAUDE.md files and processing them with file import resolution. Saves processed context files with resolved imports next to the original CLAUDE.md files or in a specific location (configurable).

These files can then be used as context for Gemini or opencode.

But why?

Claude Code uses CLAUDE.md files which provide context for the tool. From Anthropic's docs:

You can place CLAUDE.md files in several locations:

The root of your repo, or wherever you run claude from (the most common usage). Name it CLAUDE.md and check it into git so that you can share it across sessions and with your team […] Any parent of the directory where you run claude. This is most useful for monorepos, where you might run claude from root/foo, and have CLAUDE.md files in both root/CLAUDE.md and root/foo/CLAUDE.md. Both of these will be pulled into context automatically […] Your home folder (~/.claude/CLAUDE.md), which applies it to all your claude sessions

Other agentic tools, like Gemini CLI or opencode, work mostly the same way, but their expected file names are different (GEMINI.md, AGENTS.md etc.), and their home folder is not ~/.claude/. Sure, I can make them read my CLAUDE.md files by adding that name to their settings (see Gemini's docs about contextFileName or opencode's docs on instructions), but that helps only partially – because these tools differ in one big way:

They all read rule files in different ways.

For example, both Claude Code and Gemini can @-import other files, meaning they will replace @./some/file.md directives in their context file with the contents of the referenced file. But while Claude Code will happily import files from anywhere on your device, Gemini only allows files in the current directory. And opencode works in a different way still.

But I switch agents quite a bit, and it's cumbersome to copy and paste my rules and guidelines around.

So in order to streamline my dev environment, I decided to keep only my CLAUDE.md's in order, and make Gemini and opencode play ball. Now I only have to set up context once (for Claude) – and have the other agents reuse it without me having to jump through hoops.

Showcase

create - Generate context files with resolved imports

Note: "Single collated file" means "one output file that contains every processed CLAUDE.md from project up to global folder".

# Create individual `CLAUDE-derived.md` files next to each `CLAUDE.md` in the
# folder hierarchy, from project up to global folder (`~/.gemini/` by default)
render-claude-context create

# Create single collated `CLAUDE-derived.md` file in current project directory
render-claude-context create --output-folder project

# Create single collated `CLAUDE-derived.md` file in global folder (`~/.gemini/`
# by default)
render-claude-context create --output-folder global

# Create individual `my-context.md` files next to each `CLAUDE.md` in the folder
# hierarchy, from project up to global folder
render-claude-context create --filename my-context.md

# Create individual `CLAUDE-derived.md` files next to each `CLAUDE.md` in the
# folder hierarchy, from project up to `~/.config/opencode/` global folder
render-claude-context create --target opencode

# Create individual `CLAUDE-derived.md` files next to each `CLAUDE.md` in the
# folder hierarchy, from project up to `~/my-ai-configs/` global folder
render-claude-context create --global-folder ~/my-ai-configs/

# Create individual `CLAUDE-derived.md` files next to each `CLAUDE.md` in the
# folder hierarchy, from project up to global folder (`~/.gemini/` by default),
# omitting commands from `~/.claude/commands/` directory from the output file
render-claude-context create --no-add-commands

# Create single collated `project-context.md` file in current project directory,
render-claude-context create --output-folder project \
  --filename project-context.md

# Create single collated `full-context.md` file in global folder (`~/.gemini/`
# by default), omitting commands from `~/.claude/commands/` directory from the
# output file
render-claude-context create --output-folder global --filename full-context.md \
  --no-add-commands

cleanup - Remove generated context files

Works exactly like create but removes the files. Imagine that!

setup - Register context file with AI tool for auto-loading

# Register default filename `CLAUDE-derived.md` for auto-loading with Gemini
render-claude-context setup

# Register default filename `my-context.md` for auto-loading with Gemini
render-claude-context setup --filename my-context.md

# Register default filename `CLAUDE-derived.md` for auto-loading with opencode
render-claude-context setup --target opencode

# Register default filename `project-context.md` for auto-loading with opencode
render-claude-context setup --target opencode --filename project-context.md

teardown - Unregister context file from AI tool

Works exactly like setup but removes the settings.

Output Folder Modes (--output-folder flag)

Note: "Single collated file" means "one output file that contains every processed CLAUDE.md from project up to global folder".

origin (default)

• Creates individual files next to each CLAUDE.md in the directory hierarchy
• Special case: ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md output goes to target's global folder
• Most flexible for development workflows

project

• Creates single collated file in current working directory, containing all CLAUDE.md output from project folder on up, including ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md
• Good for project-specific context generation

global

• Creates single collated file in target's global folder
• Best for persistent AI tool integration

Examples

For Gemini

# One-time setup, tells Gemini to use context files with that name
render-claude-context setup --filename CLAUDE-derived.md

# Every day use: Generate context files on the fly, call Gemini, then clean up
render-claude-context create
gemini
render-claude-context cleanup

opencode, 0FG mode ("zero f's given")

# No prior "setup" necessary, just generate `AGENTS.md` on the fly
# 🚨 THIS WILL OVERWRITE ANY EXISTING `AGENTS.md` FILES FROM PROJECT UP TO
# 🚨 GLOBAL FOLDER 
render-claude-context create --filename AGENTS.md --target opencode
opencode
render-claude-context cleanup --filename AGENTS.md --target opencode

Installation

npm install -g [email protected]:czottmann/render-claude-context.git

Quick Build Commands

# See usage
render-claude-context help

# Create context files (default: next to each `CLAUDE.md`)
render-claude-context create

# Write all processed `CLAUDE.md` output from project folder up to `~/.claude/`
# into a single `my-context.md` file in default global folder (`~/.gemini/`).
render-claude-context create --output-folder global --filename my-context.md

# Create but write the processed version of the Claude file found in 
# `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` to a custom global folder
render-claude-context create --global-folder ~/Desktop/
render-claude-context cleanup --global-folder ~/Desktop/

# Gemini integration setup/teardown
render-claude-context setup --filename my-context.md --target gemini
render-claude-context teardown --filename my-context.md --target gemini

Author

Carlo Zottmann, [email protected], https://c.zottmann.dev, https://github.com/czottmann

💡 Did you know?

I make Shortcuts-related macOS & iOS productivity apps like Actions For Obsidian, Browser Actions (which adds Shortcuts support for several major browsers), and BarCuts (a surprisingly useful contextual Shortcuts launcher). Check them out!

Key Files

• Main Entry Point: index.js (Commander.js integration, commands 11-75)
• File Collection: src/fileCollector.js (directory traversal 5-28, ~/.claude handling 21-25)
• Import Resolution: src/importResolver.js (recursive @path processing 5-40, tilde expansion 15-16)
• File Processing: src/fileProcessor.js (content generation 25-46, output modes 62-76)
• Commands: src/commands/ (create, setup, teardown, cleanup implementations)
• Configuration: package.json (binary render-claude-context 6-8, dependencies 20-22)

Documentation

• Project Overview - Purpose, technology stack, platform support with file references
• Architecture - Component map, data flow, key functions with line numbers
• Development - Code patterns, Commander.js structure, debugging workflows
• Files Catalog - Complete file organization, dependencies, naming conventions

LLMs will find specific file paths, line numbers for key functions, actual code examples from the codebase, and practical guidance for understanding and extending the hierarchical file processing system.